Millions of tiny superbugs are to be brought in to break down the fatty toxic spill in the Markman canal that has caused extensive water and air pollution in the area.
Acting city manager Johann Mettler said the municipality needed to use a method that would not harm the sensitive aquatic environment of the Swartkops estuary.
In a process known as bioremediation, the bacteria will be dumped in the canal and used to break down toxic sludge into harmless substances.
The superbugs first made a name for themselves a few years ago when they were used to clean up massive oil spills.
Zwartkops Conservancy environmental officer Jenny Rump said the organisation was very excited about the eco-friendly plans to clean up the canal and had been in touch with assistant director of waste water treatment, Anderson Mancotywa, about the process.
It could start as early as today.
Mettler said the municipality had also started the hunt for the company that caused the pollution into the stormwater system.
“If a transgressor is identified through this process, action will be taken in line with the public health and stormwater by-laws,” he said.
Officials from the public health directorate took several water samples from the canal yesterday.
These will be analysed to help identify the source of the pollution.
Mettler said they were taking the spill very seriously.
Pumps at the Studebaker sewerage pump station had been upgraded to ensure they worked more efficiently, sewerage lines had been cleaned with high-pressure equipment, and extensive dredging operations of the Markman sewer were planned for next week, he said.
The toxic sludge spill in the canal had become so bad that the water was barely moving through thick fatty deposits yesterday.
Environmental activist Sue Hoffman, founding member of the Igazi Foundation’s environmental monitoring group LIVES, and fellow member SanMari Woithe, also took water and air samples at the canal yesterday.
The samples will be analysed by an independent laboratory and used to determine the extent of the foul-smelling pollution.
“This is a crime against the environment,” Hoffmann said. “It is absolutely horrendous.”
She said she was extremely concerned about the health of the people living and working in and around the Markman industrial area.
At Aloes, where an unbearable stench has settled following the pollution, community leader Eileen Leander said people were so angry they had threatened to start stoning all municipal vehicles, to throw sewage from the village in the road, and to block the road with burning tyres.
“It took me a while to calm them down. They were already collecting tyres. I don’t know what will happen if the municipality does not do anything,” she said.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality was first informed of the spill on June 3 but was seen for the first time to take decisive action yesterday, with workers seen at the Studebaker pump station.
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